John Henry Days Colson Whitehead by Colson Whitehead 9780007476541, 000747654X instant download after payment.

Whitehead’s novel is on one level a multifaceted retelling of the story of John Henry, the black steel driver who died outracing a machine designed to replace him. On another level, it’s the story of a disaffected, middle-aged black journalist on a mission to set a record for junketeering who attends the annual John Henry Days festival. It is also a high-velocity thrill ride through the tunnel where American legend gives way to American pop culture replete with p. r. flacks, stamp collectors, blues men, and turn-of-the-century song pluggers. 

"...Whitehead exemplifies image-fiction in his language. He has an exceptional ability to write in the style of self-conscious irony, consistently describing everything from decrepit office anonymity to a folksy county fair in this vernacular. The results are breathtaking: Whitehead’s book feels about as stark and dry as a book can be without inducing suicide ... It’s an unsettling kind of sarcasm, something that a sit-com, wants to make the watcher feel special and superior, never would dare. Further, Whitehead hasn’t written a book wholly devoid of hope ... In John Henry Days not only is Whitehead carrying the torch for the likes of DeLillo, but he’s doing it in admirable fashion."  -  The Quarterly Conversation

Colson Whitehead is the author of Zone One. Sag Harbor. The Intuitionist, a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway award. John Henry Days, which won the Young Lions Fiction Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and Apex Hides the Hurt, winner of the PEN Oakland Award. A recipient of a Whiting Writers' Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a MacArthur Fellowship, he lives in New York City.